The population of Faisa was in a haze. They lost a total of six women. It took them years to get their population above fifty, and then the Turquoise Tunics ruined it for them. The Turquoise Tunics had no reason to attack them on such a sacred holiday.
The Sacrificial Ceremony was the only holiday that their religion actually celebrated. Roem was always celebrating holidays. They played loud music, screamed, and partied at least once a month. They were always bothering the women of Faisa. The civilians of Faisa always wondered what they were celebrating. They won a very little number of battles, believed in odd gods, and had never had a good harvest.
Faisa was such a successful civilization because they worshipped the correct gods and treated them as gods should be treated. Faisa showered the gods with sacrifices, wrote poems and tales about the gods’ triumphs, and even took an annual oath of silence for the gods. The Turquoise Tunics treated the gods like they were petty human beings. The women of Roem drank in the gods honor, talked of their misdeeds, and engaged in multiple acts of sin.
The women of Faisa were preparing for the funeral of the six women that had died in battle. The six women were CC94, CC99, CC101, CC109, CC115, and CC121. CC123’s mother did not receive a proper funeral because she was a sacrifice. CC97’s body was hung from the tallest tree in Faisa so the gods could see that they were given a sacrifice.
CC123 sat in her dark, cold house. She was very lonely and she was on the verge of taking her own life. She could not live without her father. She was only ten years of age. She believed that she was too young to raise herself as a proper woman. Officials told her that it didn’t matter if her mother had died or not. When a Crimson Cloak turns eleven they go through a ceremony that emancipates them from their mother. CC123 was ten years, eleven months, and twelve days old. She turned eleven in less than twenty days.
CC123 let her eyes squeeze out a teardrop. She wasn’t a fan of showing pain, but she was running out of emotions to convey to the public. So, she finally decided to show what she was really feeling. She decided to show all of Faisa that she was sad, depressed, and regretful. She wished that she would have been chosen over her mother. She believed that her mother was a great ruler, and that she would turn out to be a failure.
Someone knocked on CC123’s door. CC123 got up from her uncomfortable dining room chair and made her way to the living room, which is where the door was located. Her living room was filled with items left behind by her deceased mother. CC123 wiped an oncoming tear from her eye, before grabbing the doorknob. She twisted the doorknob and heard thousands of gears click and grind. CC123 opened the door. The person at the door was the official from the day her mother had died.
CC123 tried to slam the door in her face, but the official wedged her foot between herself and the door. She softly said, “President CC123. We need to talk about urgent matters.”
CC123 thought about taking off the official’s foot with her musket. CC123 did her best to resist the temptation to kill the persistent official standing at her doorway. CC123 slowly opened the door. She stared at the official’s cold, naked body. CC123 gestured for the official to enter her home.
The official entered the presidential abode. CC123 saw the name printed on the back of her robe. Her name was CC122. CC123 wanted to make a commotion, but she restrained herself from angering the official. The official sat near the dying fire. It warmed her frigid body. CC123 could tell, because her skin tone changed from pale to a golden tone.
CC123 sat near the fireplace as well. She coughed. She believed that she was catching a sickness, from all of the extreme weather changes the she had endured in the recent past. She put her hands out in front of the fireplace. The wood cackled and hissed as it was devoured by the fire. Those sounds were the only sounds CC123 heard for days. It was a relaxing sound. It gave her a sense of home. Those were the sounds she heard when her mother was alive, and they would curl up by the fireplace and fall asleep.
